The potential demand for family planning: a new measure of unmet need and estimates for five Latin American countries
Westoff, C.F.
International Family Planning Perspectives 14(2): 45-53
1988
ISSN/ISBN: 0190-3187 DOI: 10.2307/2947679Document Number: 319284
A new current-status measure of the unmet need for family planning has been devized on the basis of data from the Demographic and Health Surveys programme. It yields estimates of the potential demand for contraceptives for spacing and limiting births, and incorporates pregnant and recently pregnant amenorrhoeaic women whose pregnancy was unintentional. Unmet need among all married women in 5 Latin American countries was estimated with this new measure, taking into consideration age, rural/urban residence and educational level. Results range from about 15% in Brazil and Colombia and 21% in the Dominican Republic to 25% in Ecuador and 29% in Peru. The unmet need for contraceptives to limit childbearing is greater than the unmet need for spacing purposes in all of the countries but the Dominican Republic, where the prevalence of sterilization is very high. The greatest overall unmet need is found among the youngest women, i.e., in the 15-24 age group, and in rural areas. Unmet need also varies inversely, and sharply, with education. To determine trends in unmet need over the decade preceding the surveys, a comparable measure was constructed for four of the countries that were included in the World Fertility Survey. Comparisons indicate that there were dramatic declines in the unmet need for contraceptives for the purpose of limiting births, declines ranging from 20% in Peru to 55% in Colombia. A new current-status measure of the unmet need for family planning that combines elements of earlier measures has been devised on the basis of data from the ongoing Demographic and Health Surveys program. It yields estimates of the potential demand for contraceptives for spacing and for limiting births, and incorporates pregnant and recently pregnant amenorrheic women whose pregnancy was unintentional.